AUSTIN, Texas — Texas homeowners could be looking at additional property tax cuts on the horizon thanks to a new senate bill.
Thursday night, State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) filed SB 4, which would increase the homestead exemption to $140,000, and $150,000 for homeowners ages 65 and older or disabled.
Already, 29 out of the state’s 31 senators have put signed on to the bill, signaling strong support for another property tax cut for Texas homeowners.
“Whenever you have 29 co-authors, that is effectively referred to as a rocket ship to the moon,” Bettencourt said.
Bettencourt, who authored the bill, said SB 4 could save the average homeowner around $363 dollars on their tax bill. When combined with the tax rate compression included in the proposed state budget, homeowners could see another $133 in savings, for a total of almost $500 in savings.
“This is one of those win-win scenarios, where the state can pay for tax reduction, schools don’t pay for it and the taxpayers get the benefit of it,” Bettencourt said.
Under Bettencourt’s proposal, the state would allocate more money toward funding public schools, so homeowners pay less. The proposal costs about $2.7 billion. With the combined tax rate compression and increased homestead exemption, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick estimated it would cost about $32.2 billion for the state.
Last session, Texas lawmakers passed and voters subsequently approved an $18 billion property tax cut, the largest in Texas history, by increasing the homestead exemption to $100,000.
Lowering property taxes has been a priority for many lawmakers, including Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott. During Abbott’s recent State of the State address, he declared property tax relief as an emergency item.
“We know that many Texans face an affordability crisis,” Abbott said. “Last session, we slashed your property taxes, but for many Texans, those cuts were wiped out by local taxing authorities that hiked your property taxes even more. That must end this session.”
Abbott has even talked about trying to eliminate property taxes entirely, but Bettencourt said that is not yet a possibility.
“That’s a huge fiscal note, that’s $81 billion and per year, we only have $96 billion we spend on everything,” Bettencourt said. “You just have to keep chipping away incrementally.”
Texas lawmakers are hopeful that with this increased homestead exemption, they’ll be giving Texans more of a financial break.
“It’s great to see a tax cut where everybody gets it, but especially the people that call you, that ‘this bill made the difference in me keeping my home,’” Bettencourt said. “All sorts of positive things happen from homeownership, and we’re going to continue that.”
There are only two senators who are not listed as joint-authors on the bill- Democrats Borris Miles, who represents Houston, and Nathan Johnson, who represents Dallas. But since both voted on the homestead exemption increase last session, Bettencourt expects that support will continue this time around.
If the bill becomes law, Texans would still have to vote on it. Last session, voters overwhelmingly approved increasing the homestead exemption, with 83% voting in support. Bettencourt is expecting that would happen again this year.